Shonak wrote:
I just won Vuelta Murcia and when I crosse the finish line, apparently Barbero abandoned or whatever. Just pcm things. fml

Selwink wrote:
Great to see another story legend coming back

I noticed you start in CT, don't you think you'll overkill a bit there in the first season? That said, these Spanish races are all quite hard, but you're performing very well so far

A slow-paced race with two decisive mountains. The slow pace has profited us greatly since this meant that our two sprinters were fit enough to ride against the climbers. One cimb shortly before the finish saw Benat Intxausti and some other riders getting away. Thanks to Etix-Quick Step, a chasing group came back. All of Euskaltel-Euskadi was part of the peloton still. Bilbao and Zandio buried themselves inside the last 10k to set up Sanz and Barbero. When they finally succeed, it was already inspiring for us.

Three orange riders had distanced the peloton successfully inside a wind echelon, Bilbao had split the field open. Sanz and Barbero placed second, Bilbao crossed exhausted the finish line still ahead of the peloton. It’s our maiden victory since relaunch and the team couldn’t be happier to celebrate it in Spain.

Gora Euskadi!

Vuelta Ciclista a Murica, Final Results

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Enrique Sanz	Euskaltel - Euskadi	4h38'37
2	Carlos Barbero	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
3	Pello Bilbao	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
4	Michał Gołaś	Team Sky	s.t.
5	Tim Wellens	Lotto Soudal	s.t.
6	Matej Mohoric	Lampre - Merida	s.t.
7	Yukiya Arashiro	Lampre - Merida	s.t.
8	Bob Jungels	Etixx - Quick Step	s.t.
9	Roman Kreuziger	Tinkoff	s.t.
10	José Herrada	Movistar Team	s.t.
11	Giovanni Visconti	Movistar Team	s.t.
12	Beñat Intxausti	Team Sky	s.t.
13	Louis Meintjes	Lampre - Merida	s.t.
14	Jarlinson Pantano	IAM Cycling	s.t.
15	Aleksejs Saramotins	IAM Cycling	s.t.
16	Michael Rogers	Tinkoff	s.t.
17	Daniele Ratto	Androni Giocattoli - Sidermec	s.t.
18	Patrick Konrad	Bora - Argon 18	s.t.
19	Sergey Chernetskiy	Team Katusha	s.t.
20	Eduard Prades	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	s.t.
21	Anthony Turgis	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	s.t.
22	Christoph Pfingsten	Bora - Argon 18	s.t.
23	Guillaume Van Keirsbulck	Etixx - Quick Step	s.t.
24	Winner Anacona	Movistar Team	s.t.
25	Carlos Verona	Etixx - Quick Step	s.t.

No such luck at another spanish race. Some quality sprinters showed up and Daniele Bennati won the race. Euskaltel failed to set up his riders effectively and they lost considerable energy in the tough raced last 10k. Egoitz Garcia was our best man, coming just short of finishing in the Top 10 in a personal goal race.

Clasica de Almeria, Final Results

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Daniele Bennati	Tinkoff	4h22'29
2	Andrew Fenn	Team Sky	s.t.
3	Adrien Petit	Direct Energie	s.t.
4	Adam Blythe	Tinkoff	s.t.
5	Niccolo Bonifazio	Trek - Segafredo	s.t.
6	Greg Henderson	Lotto Soudal	s.t.
7	Thomas Boudat	Direct Energie	s.t.
8	Jempy Drucker	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
9	Wouter Wippert	Cannondale Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
10	Barry Markus	Roompot - Oranje Peloton	s.t.
11	Egoitz García	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
12	Jacopo Guarnieri	Team Katusha	s.t.
13	Alessandro De Marchi	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
14	Jaco Venter	Dimension Data for Qhubeka	s.t.
15	Silvan Dillier	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
16	Tony Hurel	Direct Energie	s.t.
17	Stephen Cummings	Dimension Data for Qhubeka	s.t.
18	Julien Bernard	Trek - Segafredo	s.t.
19	Sylvain Chavanel	Direct Energie	s.t.
20	Bartosz Huzarski	Bora - Argon 18	s.t.
21	Sebastian Langeveld	Cannondale Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
22	Enrique Sanz	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
23	Imanol Erviti	Movistar Team	s.t.
24	Michael Kolar	Tinkoff	s.t.
25	Alexandre Pichot	Direct Energie	s.t.

Dennis Rohan once again won the opening prologue, just like in Valencia. Follow basque Castroviejo came second. Irizar Markel came into solid form and achieved a fourth place. Our GC bet Bilbao conveiced 26 seconds on almost 7 kilometers.

The second stage was rather hilly. Xabier Zandio went onto the breakaway and soon remained as the only rider. He collected a ton of points of minor mountains but could not hold the pressure of the peloton. Up the double hill in the final ten kilometers, Bilbao and Barbero were well positioned but lacked the strength of the top riders. Sergio Henao won the stage with some margin, Barbero 15th.


Virgen de la Sierra de Cobra was the finish of the mountaintop on the third day. We didn’t get into the break but our motivations lay with Bilbao anyway. With a gutsy ride, Bilbao stayed with the favourites on the 10 kilometer long climb. He pushed towards the final five kilometers a bit the pace behind Kruiswijk. Joaquim Rodriguez did one of his infamous 2k out attacks, only Kreuziger and Froome foillowed. Whilst the latter imploed, Purito and Kreuziger took 1-2. Bilbao showed an incredible run into the steep last kilometer, accelerated for the sprint and came third on the stage ahead of Gesink, Valls, Kelderman and leader Henao. Unfortunately official time keepers have no heart for Euskaltel and so Bilbao came into the finish official with 13 more riders and he advanced only little in GC, up to 13th.

The last three stages were a sweet hunt for both the KoM jersey and a stage win then since little changes in the GC were to be expected. On the fourth day, Zandio went into the break and secured the jersey. In the bunch sprint of the peloton, Van der Leijke prevented as a breakaway rider ahead of Bouhanni, Ciolek and Barbero (4th). The following day was tough action over some climbs, Barbero stayed well with the peloton. Unfortunately Talansky won the stage as a breakaway rider, Barbero finished 4th again behind Bouhanni and Coquard.

We went into the breakaway again on the last day, Egoitz Garcia did a great job but Bookwalter was the smarter man. He attacked in the last 5k and Garcia was the only guy chasing of the 8 man group. This was not enough to reel in Bookwalter again, at least Garcia got on the podium and finished second. In the peloton there were some splits and Bilbao profited from greatly. He sneaked from 13th to 8th in the GC. Guys like Amdador and Navarro dropped out for him.


Andalucia was quite a success all put together. Although we lacked a stage win, two podium places and the KoM jersey give some reconsolidation with the sponsor. The goal was a Top 5 overall butr this is always tricky to manage in such an illustrious field. Bilbao having achieved a 8th place is a further sign of his exceptional talent.

Sponsor Goal: Top 5 failed / 8th, Bilbao
Resume: Various Top 5 stage results by Barbero, Bilbao and Garcia (5x Top 5)
Special: KoM Jersey – Xabier Zando

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Sérgio Henao	Team Sky	19h37'28
2	Chris Froome	Team Sky	+ 15
3	Roman Kreuziger	Tinkoff	+ 17
4	Wilco Kelderman	Team LottoNL - Jumbo	+ 18
5	Alberto Contador	Tinkoff	s.t.
6	Rafael Valls	Lotto Soudal	+ 28
7	Sam Oomen	Team Giant - Alpecin	+ 55
8	Pello Bilbao	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 1'04
9	Tim Wellens	Lotto Soudal	+ 1'22
10	Thomas Voeckler	Direct Energie	+ 1'57
11	Sérgio Pardilla	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	+ 2'02
12	Davide Formolo	Cannondale Pro Cycling Team	+ 2'18
13	Fabrice Jeandesboz	Direct Energie	+ 2'19
14	Steven Kruijswijk	Team LottoNL - Jumbo	+ 2'36
15	Andrey Amador	Movistar Team	+ 2'56
16	Daniel Navarro	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	+ 3'06
17	Jurgen Van Den Broeck	Team Katusha	+ 3'08
18	Dominik Nerz	Bora - Argon 18	+ 4'14
19	Jan Barta	Bora - Argon 18	+ 5'00
20	Carlos Betancur	Movistar Team	+ 5'20
21	José Herrada	Movistar Team	+ 5'26
22	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	+ 5'34
23	Bryan Coquard	Direct Energie	+ 6'01
24	Dylan Teuns	BMC Racing Team	+ 6'28
25	Maxime Monfort	Lotto Soudal	+ 7'01

A great easy win for Carlos Barbero as he was led out by Egoitz Garcia. This is his debut victory for our team and he establishes himself slowly as the greatest spanish sprint talent since Freire.

Gora Euskadi!

Trofei Umag, Final Results

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Carlos Barbero	Euskaltel - Euskadi	3h34'22
2	Logan Owen	Axeon - Hagens Berman	s.t.
3	Yannis Yssaad	Equipe Cycliste Armée de Terre	s.t.
4	Willy Willwohl	LKT Team Brandenburg	s.t.
5	Albert Torres	Team Raleigh GAC	s.t.
6	Daniel Schorn	Team Felbermayr Simplon Wels	s.t.
7	Louis Verhelst	Roubaix Lille Métropole	s.t.
8	Jóni Brandão	Efapel	s.t.
9	Edgar Pinto	Skydive Dubai - Al Ahli Club	s.t.
10	Félix Pouilly	Roubaix Lille Métropole	s.t.

The race starts with a city crit through Taiwan City. The race was really fast-paced and fun to follow. In the quickly upcoming sprint, Barbero followed the Movistar train of Rojas, and whilst the Spaniard finished 4th, Barbero came one better and got another podium at third. Kreder won the stage and took the race lead.


On the way up to Taoyuan County, the peloton headed up a MTF. Navardauskas and Nerz made moves in the last kilometers of the 10k climb. Soon Bilbao reacted and managed to jump over to them. Although he lacked the strength to win the stage against Navardauskas, it was solid enough to jump the stage’s third place up to 3rd in the GC. Barbero came 8th on the stagem 1’28’’ down on GC lead Navardauskas.

Barberlo obviously in some fantastic form was a prime contender for the flat stage the next day, which ended with a very low gradient up in the flamme rouge. Orbe, Zandio and Durán helped to reel in the breakaway, Bilbao was tasked with setting up Barbero. We were confident for the stage win but Hurel got the better of us as Barbero got boxed in and had ultimately not the strength to distance any sprinter really. He came 4th on that stage, keeping his points jersey too.


Tataka, what a climb. 40 kilometers uphill make for an impressive MTF on stage 4. We sent Zandio upfront but the breakaway lacked firepower and so Cannondale caught them before the climb even started. It was a solid pace dictated by Bora-Argon up the low gradient glacier. Barta and Buchmann especially did major work for their captain Nerz. Bilbao kept himself upfront and was good protected. Hivert and Pizarri attacked 4k out and Bilbao followed. Soon Nerz reached them and Navardauskas looked like he had certainly lost his lead. Now the question was if Bilbao could drop Nerz to gain the GC lead? Well, no, but he got the second best thing. He won the sprint and thanks to boni seconds he was in GC lead now, 4 seconds on Nerz.


On the last day it was basically pro forma. Euskaltel knew Nerz wouldn’t get the seconds but we still wanted a stage win for Barbero so we helped to get back the breakaway, but the riders survived and so the 8 first places were already taken when the peloton sprinted. Barbero got enough points to be equal with Barbier in total sprint points, however he received the points jersey, probably due to him being listed higher in the GC.


With Bilbao twice on the GC on top (General, Mountain), Barbero also claiming another jersey, the Points, this was a hugely successful trip to Taiwan. Euskaltel-Euskadi is on a roll all over the globe, in our next race Volta ao Alentejo it’s time to strike a bit closer at home.

Special:	Pello Bilbao wins GC, KoM and one stage
	Carlos Barbero wins Points Classification

Tour of Taiwan, Final Results

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Pello Bilbao	Euskaltel - Euskadi	13h19'21
2	Dominik Nerz	Bora - Argon 18	+ 4
3	Jonathan Hivert	Fortuneo - Vital Concept	+ 48
4	Ramunas Navardauskas	Cannondale Pro Cycling Team	+ 1'09
5	Dayer Quintana	Movistar Team	+ 1'12
6	Simon Clarke	Cannondale Pro Cycling Team	+ 1'26
7	Víctor De La Parte	CCC Sprandi Polkowice	s.t.
8	Serghei Tvetcov	Androni Giocattoli - Sidermec	+ 2'04
9	Bruno Pires	Team Roth	+ 2'14
10	Stefano Pirazzi	Bardiani - CSF	+ 2'28
11	Brice Feillu	Fortuneo - Vital Concept	+ 2'36
12	Carlos Barbero	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 2'43
13	José Joaquín Rojas	Movistar Team	+ 3'09
14	Francesco Bongiorno	Bardiani - CSF	s.t.
15	Francis Mourey	Fortuneo - Vital Concept	s.t.

The low-ranked Volta ao Alenjto was the destination of our next trip. Bilbao and Barbero on some stellar from, B&B are the embodiment of orange success right now. The streak continued well in impressive manner.

The first stage was won in a duo manner by Bilbao and Barbero as they distanced Mancebo critically and did a 1-2 over the climb.


Although we couldn’t repeat the success at the next stage, the following two flat stages had Barbero’s name written on them: In dominating fashion he claimed two victories and took over the lead from his mate Bilbao. The last stage though went to the breakaway.

Special:	Barbero wins GC, points and two stages
	Bilbao wins one stage and claims GC lead for three days

Volta ao Alenjto, Final Results

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Carlos Barbero	Euskaltel - Euskadi	17h40'51
2	Pello Bilbao	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 22
3	Francisco Mancebo	Skydive Dubai - Al Ahli Club	+ 1'24
4	Clément Koretzky	Team Vorarlberg	+ 2'17
5	Edgar Pinto	Skydive Dubai - Al Ahli Club	+ 2'21
6	Owain Doull	Team Wiggins	s.t.
7	Neil Van Der Ploeg	Avanti IsoWhey Sports	+ 2'26
8	Danny Pate	Rally Cycling	+ 2'29
9	Marco Zanotti	Parkhotel Valkenburg CT	+ 2'30
10	Stéphane Poulhiès	Equipe Cycliste Armée de Terre	+ 2'36
11	Oleg Zemlyakov	Vino 4-Ever SKO	s.t.
12	Sérgio Sousa	Team Vorarlberg	s.t.
13	Francesc Zurita	Team Vorarlberg	s.t.
14	Yevgeniy Gidich	Vino 4-Ever SKO	s.t.
15	Jóni Brandão	Efapel	s.t.

Impressive start for Euskaltel-Euskadi as we continue racking up the wins. In a quality field, including Bling Matthews, Barbero fulfilled our sponsor goal on the first day, taking a narrow win at the line. This guy is on fire, and it turns out his flame is orange!


We lost the jersey the next day on the Team Time Trial naturally. Basques just aren’t good at that. Stage 3 then consisted of a route several times climbing the same rather lengthy hill. Duran was really strong in the final chase up the climb, Barbero and Bilbao felt solid, however Paterzski and Pellizotti caused some confusion inside our team with their attacks. Between Bilbao’s great form and Barbero’s finishing power, we were stuck.


So Duran continued to dig hard and actually went a bit too fast for Bilbao and Barbero to hold up at one point. The downhill finished right into the finish and we placed our guys at 5-6-7, the first of a solid chaser group formed by Euskaltel.


The next day on the way to Piane di Mocagana, Esteban Chaves got some late form winning the MTF from the breakaway. Shalunov (GAZ) extended his lead in the GC ahead of Astana’s Agnoli. Bilbao finished fourth, in the GC he couldn not advance further than 6th.

The settings stayed the same after the time trial on day 5. Irizar once again came 4th in a TT, Bilbao had established himself firmly on the 6th place in the GC by then. On the last day, a rather flat stage with some hills, the only thing left to settle really was who would take the points jersey, Barbero was just one point off Shalunov in the competition and we wanted that thing.


The Via Ruvinello was multiple times climbed that day, a short sweet climb through a sleepy town. We put Riccardo Garcia upfront and he did well to race, unfortunately Bulgac won the stage and he came second but it was close enough for us. Meanwhile in the peloton, we had a hard time keeping Barbero always perfectly placed in the narrow streets. In the last round, we used this to our advantage actually and so Duran and Egoitz Garcia paced my two golden boys up the climb. We managed to distance several riders, only Pellizotti and Patzerski were GC relevant in our group. Bilbao eventually came thus 5th in the GC, Barbero claimed points jersey by coming fourth that day and climbed from 9th to 7th in GC.


Shalunov won the GC 5 seconds ahead of Paterski though. With one stage win and multiple Top 5 results, this was another worthwhile trip. The boys are on roll but soon fatigue will be taking over.

Special:	Barbero stage win, points jersey
	Bilbao 5th in GC

Settimana Coppi e Bartali, Final Results

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Evgeny Shalunov	Gazprom - RusVelo	14h19'00
2	Maciej Paterski	CCC Sprandi Polkowice	+ 5
3	Franco Pellizotti	Androni Giocattoli - Sidermec	+ 51
4	Valerio Agnoli	Astana Pro Team	+ 1'17
5	Pello Bilbao	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 1'20
6	Esteban Chaves	Orica - GreenEDGE	+ 2'17
7	Carlos Barbero	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 3'54
8	Stef Clement	IAM Cycling	+ 4'34
9	Edoardo Zardini	Bardiani - CSF	+ 4'39
10	Matteo Rabottini	Meridiana Kamen Team	+ 5'04
11	Sonny Colbrelli	Bardiani - CSF	+ 5'37
12	Ricardo García	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 5'57
13	Lieuwe Westra	Astana Pro Team	+ 6'06
14	Arkaitz Durán	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 6'08
15	Diego Rosa	Astana Pro Team	+ 6'45
16	Miguel Angel Lopez	Astana Pro Team	+ 6'59
17	Gianfranco Zilioli	NIPPO - Vini Fantini	+ 7'23
18	Michael Matthews	Orica - GreenEDGE	+ 7'40
19	Alexey Lutsenko	Astana Pro Team	+ 7'55
20	Linus Gerdemann	Stölting Service Group	+ 8'51

Euskaltel’s next race was the home race of basque legend [quote]Miguel Indurain. Obviously we wanted to do well here but unfortunately the foreigners got the better of us. Up the last climb, Bilbao and Barbero managed well to outrace some high-class names such Fränk Schleck, Tim Wellens and Tom Slagter, but the BMC duo of Hermans and Dennis provided too much firepower and so they pulled away, just to be outsprinted in the last meters by a flying Jelle Vanendert, coming out of the slipstream.


With Euskaltel scoring 4th and 5th we narrowly missed the podium but we’ll be back next year to right this wrong.

Gran Premio Miguel Indurain, Final Results

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Jelle Vanendert	Lotto Soudal	4h36'16
2	Rohan Dennis	BMC Racing Team	+ 9
3	Ben Hermans	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
4	Pello Bilbao	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
5	Carlos Barbero	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
6	Fränk Schleck	Trek - Segafredo	s.t.
7	Tim Wellens	Lotto Soudal	+ 46
8	Sébastien Reichenbach	FDJ	s.t.
9	Tom Slagter	Cannondale Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
10	Daniel Navarro	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	+ 57

A packed finish that saw Jose Joaquin Rojas win a stage and not come fourth, which is lately much more fitting for us anyway. Barbero came 10th in the sprint.

Vuelta a la Rioja, Final Results

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	José Joaquín Rojas	Movistar Team	3h43'11
2	Alexander Porsev	Team Katusha	s.t.
3	Andrea Palini	Skydive Dubai - Al Ahli Club	s.t.
4	Borut Božic	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	s.t.
5	Heinrich Haussler	IAM Cycling	s.t.
6	Daniele Bennati	Tinkoff	s.t.
7	Matteo Trentin	Etixx - Quick Step	s.t.
8	Ariel Maximiliano Richeze	Etixx - Quick Step	s.t.
9	Leigh Howard	IAM Cycling	s.t.
10	Carlos Barbero	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.